Gymnasts Zoom into virtual competition
Almost 70 young gymnasts took part in Central Gymnastics Academy’s virtual competition via Zoom at the weekend.
Organisid by academy coach Christopher Chalk, the event saw 68 gymnasts compete in six rounds and six different gymnastics disciplines - pre school, recreational, development, floor and vault, team gym and artistic.
Each gymnast submitted their home-made video floor routine which was put into their respective categories and edited together to create the competition and each video was sent to a qualified judge who gave the gymnasts a score out of 10 looking for the neatest routines.
All gymnasts who entered, received an invite Zoom link to their round where they could watch the competition stream live and all who took part received a participation certificate by email and will collect a medal when classes return to normal.
Gymnasts competed against each other to win 4th-6th place ribbons and medals for first, second and third. Winners in the respected categorise were: Pre school - Miranda Appleby; Recreational - Lulu Burt; Development - Skye McMeechan; Floor and vault - Sophie Harvey; Team gym - Katy Hynd and Artistic - Clara Whitby.
The winners of each round also won a £25 leotard gift voucher for the Zone.
Coach Chris made this event free as a way to inspire and motivate gymnasts who have now been in lockdown for more than 12 weeks and said:“This was a fantastic event which was really successful, and I never expected as many kids to enter as did.
“I decided to run the competition via Zoom and it was great to see the gymnasts’faces light up as they realised it was their video playing. All the gymnasts seemed to really enjoy competing again and it was an excellent way to get the kids motivated and engaged as it gave them something to focus on.”